S1 Rebuild(s)

[Dave Adams]

some pics of the rebuild process,

the top trailing arm bracket is broke......

the diff is sloping back a little (looking up) so that will need sorting.......

As you can see there isn't a lot of bracing in an S1 chassis, that will be sorted.

[Dave Adams]

oh! and the issue with replacing the bolt through lower arm brackets is due to the rear wishbone mounting.....it sits in a recess on the chassis and you dont have space to fit the bolts for the wishbones unless you keep the triump set up, or modify the chassis to give you access 

[Dave Adams]

You dont need to use a wish bone.....a TCA and roll bar ( or compression / tension strut )works well

[Dave Adams]

Some transit track rod ends are the same so makinv a TCA is a simple job....

[Dave Adams]

http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/271576538385?_mwBanner=
1ca kits are sold here....

[Dave Adams]

besides making a trolley for the snap-on welder i now have .......Today i sorted the rack position fully ......and also found some rack mounts in my collection of bits and bobs. just need to drill the mounting holes.

the position of the mounts were actually in the correct place...they just were exactly the wrong slope, the triumph rack mounts face the rear, the ford face the front.

but getting the rack position finally sorted means that the steering column can be fully sorted.

Making the panhard rod is also well under way, at 37" long, as long as  i could make it. it also is 7 1/2" below the chassis rail it is mounted to. so at what i calculate to be the ride height it should be slightly low at the axle end so that it moves through the horizontal position in normal use.

[Dave Adams]

a little progress yesterday....the panhard rod is tacked in and the rear axle centred (well checked for centre..i did a better job than i thought it being out if at all by less than 1mm..)

then the chassis was stripped and turned upside down and the cleaning and fully welding starts.........

then i found some body filler on the lower chassis rail...and found this

now from what i think i know about the car it was built in 1977 and off the road in 1982 to get a new engine fitted. so how did it get so rotten and then bodged?

also this chassis has signs of being in a crash...the front chassis legs are all bent and deformed on the O/S ..as is the N/S rear.... weird......i am beginning to think this car may be one car built from two.

the chassis as it is now........loads to do then painting and hopefully a straight forward rebuild.....once i source a fuel tank the fiesta tank i have is a bit too big for the S1 chassis......not too much but enough i want to change it.

[Dave Adams]

been a busy day today and i am quite stiff and tired and haven't got as much done as i would like......but progress is progress.

I dragged the chassis out into the open to help with the cleaning, i have been very careful only to add steel to the chassis and not to cut what was there.......

Enough bracing i think....well a little more at the rear between the roll bar to be done.....

I have about 50 tags to weld onto the chassis so i can fit the panelling to the interior as well, and a few holes to plug....the underneath of the chassis is like a Swiss cheese.

[Steve Kerswell]

That soft top on your Legerra looks similar to the one on Martin's Melos, good fit?

[Dave Adams]

i suspect better than Martins..;-)

[Dave Adams]

some progress on the odd days i have got back early from work.....well early for me, any time after six on an evening and before 8....later than that i cannot be bothered, earlier is er...unlikely.

and...

I have made and fitted something like 60 metal tags to fit all the panels to the inside of the car, and a bit extra bracing to the rear roll bar....well that is a bit optimistic lets call it a roof support. i just need to cut out the front shocker top mounts and move them higher by about 1" and then its a day wire brushing the chassis and painting it. so its nearly at the stage that i start rebuilding it....i have a provisional target of mid September for it going back on the road , which is likely to be optimistic as it needs a bit of money spending, and that is in short supply at the moment.

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

for those intersted in our injection setup that uses the std Ford ECU and throttle body. As some have noticed, we used an alternative plenum chamber to get the thing as compact as possible

http://www.kitspares.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&sear...

Quite well made although use of the oringinal plastic manifold cut down to provide somewhere to pu the injectors is a bit cruse. However with careful flettning off of the cut ege and also some car body filler to get the mounging flange as sommothew  possibel it actually seems to work quite well. Note however that we also had to use an althernative small alternator and pulley set to get it all in there, though if would proabably be possible to improvise something more cheaply

[Dave Adams]

I have seen that before i will either make my own or fit the MX5 manifold which shares the same port shape and dimensions as the zetec.